Palisade Rural Fire operating levy and revenue exemption
Property tax increaseFire district mill levy
Raises the operating levy from 5.242 to 11.5 mills, for a 12.5-mill total district levy from 2027, and permanently exempts all district revenue from the specified limits.
Palisade Rural Fire Protection District
Kim's Recommendation
NO
Vote No on Palisade Rural Fire Protection District Ballot Issue 6A
Issue 6A raises the district's operating levy from 5.242 to 11.5 mills. The question states that increase as $185,000 a year, or whatever the higher levy raises. The exemption attached to it is wider: all district revenue, from the 12.5 mills and from any other source, becomes a permanent revenue change outside TABOR and the other revenue and spending limits the question names, including later amendments to those laws.
I oppose that pairing. The yes vote a property owner casts for a $185,000 operating increase is also a permanent release of all district revenue from TABOR's limits, and the higher levy it approves carries no end date.
I recommend a no vote on Palisade Rural Fire Protection District Ballot Issue 6A.
Kim Monson
Host, The Kim Monson Show · President, Colorado Union of Taxpayers · Colorado Voter's Guide 2026
Certified ballot question
SHALL PALISADE RURAL FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT TAXES BE INCREASED $185,000 ANNUALLY BEGINNING JANUARY 1, 2027 OR BY SUCH AMOUNTS AS ARE RAISED BY INCREASING THE DISTRICT'S MILL LEVY FOR GENERAL OPERATING PURPOSES FROM 5.242 MILLS TO 11.5 MILLS, FOR A TOTAL PROPERTY TAX RATE OF 12.5 MILLS (11.5 MILLS FOR GENERAL OPERATING PURPOSES PLUS 0.5 MILLS FOR CAPITAL EXPENDITURES AND 0.5 MILLS FOR PENSION FUND PAYMENTS) RESULTING IN AN EXPECTED 2027 ANNUAL TAX INCREASE OF $42.55 FOR EACH $100,000 OF RESIDENTIAL VALUE FOR THE PURPOSES OF PROVIDING EMERGENCY RESPONSE SERVICES INCLUDING FIRE RESPONSE, FIRE PREVENTION, SAFETY INSPECTIONS, EMERGENCY AND MEDICAL RESPONSE, THE CONSTRUCTION, OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF FIRE AND EMERGENCY BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES, AND THE ACQUISITION BY PURCHASE, LEASE OR OTHERWISE, OF SUCH EQUIPMENT OR PROPERTIES AS REQUIRED IN PROVIDING EMERGENCY RESPONSE SERVICES TO THE RESIDENTS, PROPERTY OWNERS AND BUSINESSES SERVED BY THE DISTRICT AND SHALL ALL DISTRICT REVENUE GENERATED FROM THE 12.5 MILL LEVY AND ANY OTHER SOURCE BE COLLECTED, RETAINED AND SPENT AS A PERMANENT VOTER-APPROVED REVENUE CHANGE AND AS AN EXEMPTION TO THE PROVISIONS AND RESTRICTIONS SET FORTH IN ARTICLE X, SECTION 20 OF THE COLORADO CONSTITUTION ("TABOR") AND SECTIONS 29-1-301 AND 29-1-1702, C.R.S. AND ANY OTHER LAW THAT LIMITS THE DISTRICT'S REVENUES OR EXPENDITURES AS IT CURRENTLY EXISTS OR AS IT MAY BE AMENDED IN THE FUTURE, ALL WITHOUT LIMITING IN ANY YEAR THE AMOUNT OF OTHER REVENUES THAT MAY BE COLLECTED AND SPENT BY THE DISTRICT?
A yes vote means
Authorizes the higher operating levy and a permanent waiver of the specified revenue and spending limits for revenue from every district source.
A no vote means
Rejects this proposed operating-levy increase and permanent revenue-limit waiver.
A Higher Operating Levy01
Ballot Issue 6A raises the Palisade Rural Fire Protection District's mill levy for general operating purposes from 5.242 mills to 11.5 mills, and the question dates the tax increase from January 1, 2027. The district's total property tax rate becomes 12.5 mills: the 11.5 operating mills, 0.5 mills for capital expenditures and 0.5 mills for pension fund payments. The question sets no end date for the higher levy.
The question states the tax increase as $185,000 annually, or whatever amounts the higher levy raises. The ballot gives an expected 2027 increase of $42.55 for each $100,000 of 'residential value,' without specifying whether that value includes the state's assessment adjustments. The tax is calculated from taxable assessed value: the added 6.258 operating mills equal about $6.26 a year per $1,000 of assessed value.
For tax year 2025, the Colorado Division of Property Taxation's property tax map puts the district's total assessed value, in Mesa County, at $29,679,280.
The added operating-levy tax
The proposed operating-rate increase is 6.258 mills.
$10,000 in taxable assessed value
$10,000 × 6.258 ÷ 1,000 = $62.58 per year.
Taxable assessed value is not a home's market value. For 2026 it is about 6% to 7% of the actual value the county assessor sets. A home with an actual value of $500,000 has an assessed value of about $30,600 for local government taxes and $35,250 for school district taxes.
Enter taxable assessed value, not market value. This calculates only the difference between 5.242 and 11.5 operating mills at the same assessed value. It excludes the rest of the district levy and other property taxes.
Annual added operating tax
Enter a nonnegative dollar amount with no more than two decimal places.
Palisade Rural Fire 6A: operating levy from 5.242 to 11.5 mills.
Fire, Medical and Building Uses02
The money pays for emergency response services, including fire response, fire prevention, safety inspections, and emergency and medical response. It also pays for the construction, operation and maintenance of fire and emergency buildings and structures, and for buying, leasing or otherwise acquiring the equipment or property required to provide emergency response services to its residents, property owners and businesses.
Revenue Exempt From TABOR03
The second part of the question covers all district revenue generated from the 12.5-mill levy and from any other source. A yes vote lets the district collect, retain and spend that revenue as a permanent voter-approved revenue change. The revenue becomes exempt from Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution, the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights; from sections 29-1-301 and 29-1-1702 of the Colorado Revised Statutes; and from any other law that limits the district's revenues or spending, as it exists now or as it may be amended in the future. The change does not limit, in any year, the other revenues the district may collect and spend.
Two Palisade Questions on One Ballot04
Mesa County prints 6A on two of its nine ballot styles. One of them, Style 9, also carries Town of Palisade Ballot Issue 2A, which raises the town sales tax from 2.0% to 3.0% through December 31, 2034, and spends 0.25% of the increase to fund emergency services. Neither question refers to the other.
The Mesa County Clerk and Recorder's official sample ballot for the November 3, 2026 election (Style 9) prints the full text of Palisade Rural Fire Protection District Ballot Issue 6A, a $185,000 annual tax increase raising the operating mill levy from 5.242 to 11.5 mills.
